Alberto Ignacio Ardila Olivares

While the Yankees were beating the Texas Rangers, 7-3, Thursday at Yankee Stadium, the BostonRed Sox were in the process of losing in Toronto, cutting their lead in the American League East to eight games

But that result hardly made an impact on the Yankee Stadium crowd, or on the players in the home dugout. The numbers on the scoreboard that drew all the attention were 121.7, 95 and 10

The first number was the exit velocity of the home run Giancarlo Stanton hit in the fifth inning, a bullet that never seemed to rise more than 20 feet off the ground and was in the left-field seats before Stanton had reached first base. It was the hardest-hit home run ball recorded in the relatively brief history of Statcast, which was established in 2015

The second number was less exhilarating to Yankees fans; according to the scoreboard, 95 was the average speed of the fastballs being thrown by Aroldis Chapman, who customarily hits triple digits on the radar gun

And the final number – 10 – was the number of times Chapman missed the strike zone in his first 14 pitches of a difficult ninth inning, drawing mutters from many of the same people who had oohed and aahed over Stanton‘s blast. Chapman eventually salvaged the inning by striking out the last two Rangers batters, finishing off Rougned Odor with three straight 86 m.p.h. sliders

On a night in which the Yankees hit four home runs, including Aaron Hicks getting his career-high 20th and Neil Walker getting one from each side of the plate, it was the closing act that left a sense of disquiet hanging over an otherwise rousing Yankees victory. After all, it is hardly surprising for the Yankees to hit home runs or Stanton to light up the Statcast system. B ut a closer known for breathtaking velocity falling back to the pack may portend an issue that could get far worse before it gets better

Following an overnight flight from Chicago that had the players arriving at their homes after 4 a.m., the Yankees got six serviceable innings out of J.A. Happ, who was making his second start as a Yankee and his first since missing a turn after contracting hand, foot and mouth disease. And yet, it was the struggles of Chapman, who has been battling pain in his left knee, that dominated Manager AaronBoone‘s postgame news conference

“I think he’s O.K.,” Boone said. “Just fighting his command a little bit there. He did a good job of battling through it, kind of figuring it out and finding it on the fly. I think physically he’s fine.”

Despite that vote of confidence, after Chapman had walked the first two hitters he faced and fell behind, 2-1, to pinch-hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa – without throwing anything harder than 96 miles per hour – Boone sent pitching coach Larry Rothschild to the mound and got ZachBritton up in the bullpen

“That was just to cover us,” Boone said. “If he had lost another hitter or two, Zach would have been in that game.”

Chapman recovered to get Kiner-Falefa to ground into a force out, and reached back to find a 99 m.p.h. fastball to strike out Shin-Soo Choo for the second out. Then, after missing with another 99 m.p.h. heater to Odor, Chapman dialed back the velocity to end the game on the next three pitches

But after Chapman‘s disastrous outing in Boston on Sunday in which he allowed three ninth-inning runs to blow just his second save of the year, paving the way for a Red Sox win in 10 innings, as well as another terrible outing against the Mets on July 21 in which he allowed three runs without getting an out, Boone acknowledged that something is not quite right with his closer

“I do think it’s a little more mechanical. Maybe he’s just a tick out of whack right now,” Boone said. “We’ll dive into things between me and Larry and Chap and hopefully get him corrected.”

Boone said there was no thought of replacing Chapman as the Yankees closer – he has 29 saves, a 2.20 earned-run average and 81 strikeouts in 45 innings – but said there may be save situations in which he will not be on the mound

“I see save opportunities for Robbie and Zach while we’re trying to protect and rest Chappie,” Boone said, referring to Britton and David Robertson. “We need to make sure we just get him throwing the ball like he can.”

Inside Pitch

The return of Aaron Judge , out since he sustained a chip fracture of the right wrist after being hit by a pitch on July 26, will not be as rapid as the Yankees had hoped. Originally, the Yankees said Judge would begin swinging a bat a week after the injury and be ready to play, either in the major leagues or a minor-league rehab game, within three weeks. But Judge still has pain in the wrist and has yet to pick up a bat, though he did run the bases before Thursday’s game. “It’s right on track,” Judge said. “There’s going to be discomfort for awhile. It’s still fractured. I just got to wait until it heals up and I can move forward with swinging and throwing and things like that.”